Questions for the PR Industry: Dionne Taylor

Questions for the PR Industry is back with some further insights and experiences from professionals and experts.

For the December edition, we reached out all the way to Australia to chat with Dionne Taylor from Polkadot Communications, a PR firm in the heart of Sydney. Starting the agency at the age of 23, after working as an entertainment and news journalist, Dionne was one of Australia’s youngest PR innovators.

Now 11 years later she has established herself as an industry leader, innovator, and thought-leader in the media industry.

What skill(s) do you think are crucial to working in PR/communications?

Having a personality and being able to speak to complete strangers is crucial in our industry. You need to hold conversations with people at any level of management, and in a variety of industries. Thirst for knowledge in your client’s industries is also crucial as you need to know exactly how their industry operates. Curiosity is vital to ensuring your ahead of your game, sharpening your own skills and also predicting the next wave of communication trend.

What do you see as the future direction of the industry?

The abolishment of the press release! The industry needs a change as we move to more digital coverage, journalists won’t be needing releases, they want short, sharp pitches and I see the use of smartphone apps driving this direction to feed the media with content. I also foresee a ban or shut down on “influencers” who buy their followers – too many technologies have been developed to undercover this authenticity.

Tell us about your guilty media pleasure

I get lost in the “vortex” of Instagram; jumping from one follower to another, I can literally scroll for an hour with time passing so quickly and forgetting why I went to Instagram in the first place. It’s such a visual feast I absolutely love it both for work and pleasure.

Thanks, Dionne!

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